There is no BLS wage series for laboratory animal technicians — the federal data counts the work inside SOC 31-9096, Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers, together with clinic veterinary assistants.
In the May 2025 OEWS release that combined occupation earned a median of $38,150 a year, or $18.34 an hour, with a mean of $40,340 a year.
The lab-side signal is industry: medians of $49,230 in scientific research and development services and $47,860 in educational services, against $37,930 in veterinary services.
What is the national pay range for laboratory animal technicians?
Start with the structural fact, because it governs every number on this page: there is no BLS wage series for laboratory animal technicians.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts the work inside Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers (SOC 31-9096) — an occupation defined as workers who feed, water and examine pets and other nonfarm animals for signs of illness, disease or injury in laboratories and animal hospitals and clinics.
O*NET's sample titles for the same code include Research Animal Attendant, Animal Care Provider and Small Animal Caretaker.
Clinic assistants and lab animal caretakers share one federal bucket, so any "laboratory animal technician salary" figure that traces to BLS is really that bucket's number.
The May 2025 OEWS release puts the combined occupation at 126,580 jobs nationally, with a mean wage of $19.39 an hour or $40,340 a year.
The median was $38,150.
Around that median, the annual distribution ran $30,120 at the 10th percentile, $35,660 at the 25th, $45,710 at the 75th and $49,150 at the 90th.
Read those figures as the shape of the whole occupation, not a quote for the lab job — the sections below pull the same data apart by hour, by setting and by state.
If you're still deciding on the role itself, the laboratory animal technician career guide covers the role's duties, settings and AALAS ladder; this page stays on pay.
One occupation code, two jobs
What do laboratory animal technicians make per hour?
BLS publishes the occupation's hourly wages as their own series.
In the May 2025 data the median was $18.34 an hour, with the 10th percentile at $14.48, the 25th at $17.15, the 75th at $21.98 and the 90th at $23.63.
The mean hourly wage was $19.39 — slightly above the median.
Before comparing any number against these, check which of the two it claims to be: means and medians answer different questions.
Use the hourly distribution to judge an hourly offer and the annual series for a salaried posting — the same occupation is published both ways.
What neither series does is isolate the lab side of the occupation; both carry the combined-occupation caveat attached to every figure on this page.
Pay in a veterinary hospital vs a research lab
BLS lists this occupation's settings as clinics and animal hospitals, colleges and universities, and research laboratories.
Groomer and kennel-attendant pay comes from a different series: O*NET lists Dog Groomer and Kennel Attendant among the sample titles for Animal Caretakers (SOC 39-2021), an occupation that explicitly excludes veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers.
Measured against a groomer's or kennel attendant's pay, you're comparing occupations, not settings.
Within this occupation, the published data shows a wide pay split by setting.
BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook puts the May 2025 medians at $49,230 in scientific research and development services, $47,860 in educational services and $37,930 in veterinary services — one occupation, one year, with the research and university medians above the clinic median.
The national median reads like a clinic number because the occupation is mostly clinic jobs.
In 2025, 86% of the occupation's jobs were in veterinary services, 5% in educational services and 1% in scientific research and development services.
The OEWS industry tables count 4,840 jobs in colleges, universities and professional schools and 1,260 in scientific research and development services, against 113,220 in the professional, scientific and technical services group that contains veterinary clinics.
Inside veterinary services itself, the occupation held 113,130 jobs — 24.0% of the industry's employment — at the same $37,930 median.
So the reading for a lab-side candidate is that the combined national figure sits below the research-industry median, and the industry medians are the closest published read on the lab side.
The clinic-side read of the same series is veterinary assistant pay on this site.
The industry medians are still combined figures
Laboratory animal technician pay by state
State medians come from the same combined occupation, so the table below is the whole occupation's pay geography in the BLS OEWS May 2025 data — not a research-sector map.
It shows the five highest state medians, the two lowest, and three other states in between:
| State | Median annual wage |
|---|---|
| Rhode Island | $49,770 |
| District of Columbia | $49,080 |
| Massachusetts | $46,670 |
| California | $46,260 |
| New Jersey | $46,160 |
| New York | $44,750 |
| Florida | $37,830 |
| North Carolina | $37,070 |
| Louisiana | $30,480 |
| Mississippi | $30,360 |
BLS OEWS May 2025 annual medians for SOC 31-9096 by state.
Two cautions apply: each state's figure mixes its clinic assistants with its lab animal caretakers, so a high median is not by itself evidence of a strong research market — and the distance between the top and bottom of this table is a reminder that the same job title can be priced very differently across state lines.
Laboratory animal technician jobs and pay right now
The federal outlook covers the combined occupation: BLS projects employment of veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, with about 23,200 openings a year, on average, over the decade.
As with the wage data, the projection does not split lab facilities out on their own.
There is no separate VeterinaryHires listing bucket for this title to quote from, either: it publishes no listing count or advertised-pay sample for laboratory animal technicians.
As of October 22, 2026 the board carried 13,218 live veterinary job openings, of which 318 were kennel attendant postings.
So for a read on one facility, the individual posting is the pay figure to check.
Search several titles — laboratory animal technician, research animal attendant, animal care provider — and compare the posted range where an employer states one; a board-wide search is the way in.
Does AALAS certification raise laboratory animal technician pay?
The direct answer: the sources for this page carry no BLS or AALAS figure for how much ALAT, LAT or LATG certification adds to pay, so treat any specific certification premium you see quoted as unsourced.
What the sources do document is narrower.
BLS puts certification in the optional column: not mandatory for the occupation, but a way for workers to demonstrate competency.
And some employers write it into the title itself — the University of Missouri System's Laboratory Animal Technician classification requires employees not already LAT-certified to test for the certification within six months of employment in the title.
That is one employer's rule, not a market-wide requirement, but it shows the form a certification requirement takes where one exists.
For pay purposes, read certification as a hiring signal and sometimes a condition of employment — not a raise with a published number.
The eligibility ladders, exam fees and renewal rules are covered in the AALAS certification guide.